The left is having a field day with the leak of offshore account information. They’re at their favourite sport, vilifying the rich, and for what. For wanting to have a little more; for worrying that governments will get hold of their ill-gotten hard won wealth and just squander it, now that it’s safely hidden from their grasping reach; and so what if it’s not being that productive, at least it’s not being wasted on useless social programs. The poor and so-called needy – more like wastrels if you ask me – should just get jobs rather than wait idly for handouts from those who have it.
It’s just downright nasty to accuse everyone who has an offshore account to hold their meager wealth of trying to hide dirty money. Who’s to judge what’s dirty, after all? Some people engage in alternative businesses which just happen to be currently frowned upon by those who haven’t thought about these novel ways to earn a decent living – arming those who need to defend themselves; supplying hard to get pharmaceuticals for the tired, the hyper, the exhausted athletes, and for those who need a little excitement in their lives; supplying cheap manpower to help those struggling to get that competitive edge and make an extra billion or two; and, worst of all, the misunderstood dictators paying themselves small fees, most often barely half the nation’s vast earnings from foreign aid, for managing difficult economies.
Then this bitterness about everyone not paying their fair share of the total tax burden. What about all those decent people who have respected all the legal loopholes that their plutocratic friends have slipped into the tax code so that the government doesn’t fleece them? If you’ve followed the rules you should be allowed the little extras that make life worthwhile – a small 30 meter boat; perhaps a place to hang your hat in four or five different countries; a reliable car, for those moments when accelerating quickly to 350km/hr. is crucial to well-being; token gifts to elected officials to show support for the democratic process.
I had no idea that there was so much ill feeling toward those trying to preserve their wealth. I suppose it might seem unfair, to the uninformed observer of human nature, that the tax burden to support a prosperous, well-ordered, law-abiding society should not be supported by all, fairly and willingly. But to call them leeches, free-riders, scum and other unflattering names I believe, goes too far. It is the people at the bottom, the homeless, avoiding paying rent to nice slumlords, the welfare cheats, sobbing about feeding their children and other hangers on who should be investigated as the real tax cheats ripping off a tolerant society.
And for those who are looking for ways to safely stash their money out of the government’s reach there are plenty of nice institutions willing to help.
